Meta

Hi friends! I was going through some of my stamp binders the other day and I was feeling a longing to stamp some of my old favorites. I really enjoy having my stamp collection however I’d been feeling a bit guilty not using these lovely stamps but then when I think about using them I feel bad because they are older and if you guys want them they are long gone from all stores.

But then I had an idea! I searched flower fairy coloring pages and I found this sweet pea flower fairy image that is like the stamp I used. You can find free coloring sheets online for all of the lovely vintage illustrated by Cicely Mary Barker just by doing a quick google search. I have to confess, when these stamps came out back in 2009 I bought every set (and I got a steal too paying $4-$6 a set for them!) and I have enjoyed them so much over the years. I am glad that there are free coloring sheets for anyone who missed out on the stamps. As a plus you can print them out any size you like for your cards and your alcohol markers won’t smear the ink jet printer ink either! Just as I was thinking “they should make a coloring book of these” I googled it and sure enough there are several, this one is only $3.44 and has the alphabet of flower fairies and there is another hardcover coloring book available of other designs and both books feature the artwork of Cicely Mary Barker. Since there are options for folks wanting these images I won’t feel bad using my stamps and sharing the projects I guess:)

I decided I would try coloring this image using the set of Studio 71 alcohol ink dual brush markers I got last year. They happen to be on sale this week on Consumer Crafts and this pack of 48 is $39.97 which is a steal for brush tip alcohol markers. All of the markers I use today came from the 48 set with the addition of a clear blender but you can use any alcohol clear blending marker.

Here are the recipes I used for this project and how I applied the markers. I figured that this would be clearer than a video as I always find my own marker tutorials a bit painful to watch LOL!

For the pink (wings, skirt, bonnett) I used R4, R2 and N1 (clear)

Prime the area with N1 (clear), apply R4 to the shadows then apply R2 over the R4 and pull the color out to blend. Overlap the edges of R2 with the clear to soften and blend it out to white.

For the green leaves and top I used BG3 and BG13

Apply BG3 to the shadow areas and then color over the entire area with BG13 to unify and blend.

For the purple flower and baby romper I used V5, V14 and the clear N1 blender

Prime the area with clear. Scribble the darker V14 on a tile and pick it up with the brush tip of the V5 maker and apply to shadow areas and then continue to blend out with the V5. You will naturally have darker color where you start and it will get lighter as you use up the darker ink you picked up. Use the clear marker to brighten the highlights if desired.

For the hair I used E6 and YR3

Color all of the hair with YR3 then add shadows with E6 while the ink is still wet. It should blend naturally but if not you can go back in with the lighter color (YR3) to soften.

For the skin I used Y3, E15, YR3 and R2 (for the blush)

Color all the skin with E15, add shadows with YR3 then color over all the sin with Y3 to blend and reduce the pinkness. Dab R2 on the cheeks while the ink is still wet for the blush.

This whole painting was done with 11 markers. Even though some of the colors I chose were not that close the fact that we layered them made them unified. I think the fact that these markers have brush tips helps them blend too although I use the chisel end of the clear marker when I am priming and lightning. I also like that you can replace any of the single markers if they go dry for $1.97 each…none of mine have dried out yet tho. I like to mention whenever the Studio 71 marker packs go on sale because I have never seen a better value on brush tip markers. The brush nibs are not quite as good as Copic but they are 1/4 of the price and the chisel nibs are the same quality. You just can’t beat it. Oh, I also wanted to mention that there are some duplicate colors between packs so my recommendation is to get the 48 set if you can swing it and fill in with singles as needed so you don’t accidentally end up with doubles, or start with a smaller set and add to it a marker at a time as you see what your needs are. The cheapest per marker price is in the 48 pack though.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! If you already have markers you can try the blends with the pens you already have, look at the caps in the photo above to match up your colors as close as you can but if you need markers the Studio 71 ones are a great buy. The link to the markers are affiliate links so if you do purchase though my links I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you:) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Hi friends! The other day I posted some pressed flower projects including a card that I colored with alcohol markers.

May of you asked for the coloring tutorial, so here it is! There are no difficult techniques here so if you are a beginner this one’s for you! Also I did not speed up any of the coloring (I did clip out any repetitive bits) so you can see the techniques in real time. I hope you find it useful!

I like to blend alcohol markers from dark to light, it is quick and works well on high quality cardstock like Neenah. Remember that Copic coloring takes practice, enjoy the journey! You can find more alcohol marker tutorials here. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Hello friends! I hope you are having a nice Friday! I feel like I have been bouncing from project to project this week but I have to tell you I love it! I’ll be starting my Mixed Media art Journal series on my blog tomorrow, I’m calling it Mixed Media Fun and each video will explore a specific technique or supply. I hope you check back for that! Today though, I have a couple tutorials for you on how I made the stamped panel for this card:

I love the Flower Fairy stamp collection from Crafter’s Companion, I bought EVERY unmounted stamp set they offered on sale at Custom Crops a couple years ago and I am so glad I did because you can’t find them all anymore! There are a few (probably the most popular ones) sets of cling mounted flower fairy stamps available directly at Crafter’s Companion but they don’t have the massive amount of stamps that the original unmounted sets had and they are more expensive because they are mounted. But it is an option if you are looking for something similar and missed the boat.

In the first video I will show you how to color the fairy using watercolor pencils and a blender pen:

I love the way she turned out but I did not like the white background so here is how to stamp a background without masking. You will need a clear embossing inkpad (or glycerin and a make-up sponge) chalk pastels and a pom-pom or Q-tip to apply the chalk, have a look.

You can get the set of chalk I used here at Custom Crops along with other color sets and the last time I checked they were on sale!

I stamped the sentiment right on the background with purple metallic ink and then used embossing tinsel (OK show of hands, who has been stamping long enough to remember embossing tinsel, turns out it ages very well since I bought mine 8 years ago at a yard sale LOL!) to give it a bit of bling.

I decided on an easel card because I wanted a little bit more space to decorate and the floor of the card gives me that opportunity.

I decorated it with orphaned die-cuts that were sitting in the use-it-or-toss-it-basket, don’t we all have one of those? I hope you try these techniques and if you do share it on the facebook page, I’d love to see it! Have a great night and til next time happy crafting!

Happy Friday! Nope, that is not a typo in today’s blog post header, Letraset is offering 65% off the Tria Marker sets of 12 Friday June 17th only! The ink in Tria Markers is the same as in Promarkers but Tria markers are refillable and you can replace the nibs but the most wonderful feature of these markers is that it has 3 nibs! You get a brush end on one end (it has a nice “spring” to it, I like it better than Copic) and the other end has a chisel tip and a fine tip snaps over the chisel tip to give you 3 nibs in one. I love them. I have the Fashion set and it is fabulous. As my Promarkers are used up (not that any of them are remotely dried out and I use them all the time!) I will be replacing them with the Tria of the same color. To get the sale price on the Letraset website use the code: SHH-0611. Letraset ships worldwide too! Now on to the cards colored with Letraset markers:

The Flower Fairy stamps are from Crafter’s Companion, love these! I hope to own all of their individual fairy stamps someday, sigh…

Here are the close-ups of the cards. I stamped the fairies on Neenah Classic crest #80 with Memento black and colored them with my Promarkers by Letraset. I started with the darkest colors on the edges and blended them inwards with a lighter shade. The only difference between Promarkers and Letra set is that you can refill/replace the nibs and ink on Trias and there are 300+ colors in Tria and only about 144 in the promarker range. I have some of both and they work beautifully together!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! Don’t forget the Tria Marker sale at Letraset is today (June 17, 2011) only and you have to use the code: SHH-0611 when you checkout to get the 65% off!

So, I feel the need today to alert my blog readers of something that happened over the weekend. SCAL2, the die cutting software I use 95% of the time with my Cricut Machine, has been removed from the Craft Edge website and will no longer be sold. If you have SCAL2 or SCAL already you are OK, the software will continue to work just fine and you will not be tricked into updating scal and losing your ability to cut with your Cricut. Craft Edge will continue to support the software until the end of the year. However you won’t want to update any ProvoCraft Cricut software or they may block you SCAL or MTC and then you will be up the proverbial river. I’m just bummed today, I have been a passionate user of SCAL for almost 3 years, I think it stinks the ProvoCraft (the makers of Cricut) have bullied them and got their way. Boo provocaft, shame on you! I will continue to use my SCAL2 software until my Cricut wears out then I will buy a die cutter that will let me cut what I want and doesn’t go around suing everybody and there are plenty of reputable die cutting machines that will work with the new SCAL3 such as: Craftwell eCraft™, Black Cat Cougar/Lynx™, Boss Kut Gazelle™, Pazzles Inspiration™, Silhouette SD™, USCutter™. And unlike Provocraft software SCAL is available for Windows and Macintosh.

I will no longer purchase products from bullies and I know other crafters feel the same way. Provocraft/Cricut thinks that this move will give them back a monopoly so they can charge $90 a cartridge…think again. BTW there is a new software I tried called FairyCut and although I prefer scal for straight die cutting the print & Cut feature in fairy cut is freakin’ unbelievable! It’s like having the Cricut Imagine machine except you can print and cut ANYTHING you want not just the lame graphics available on the overpriced cartridge…oh wait, that was just mean…shame on me 😛 Of course it is only a matter of time before they get sued too so you might want to grab this software while you can 😉 Alrightie, I am official done with my ranting and raving…speaking of fairies (nice segway huh?) here is a card I made with the new Flower Fairy stamps from Crafters Companion:

Stamps: Fairy/daisy (Crafters Companion), Words/other flower (SU!), Frugal Tip: Make an envelope first and use the scrap of paper leftover on the card.

It was a thank you for the Daisy Girl Scout leader, hence the daisy fairy. To see how I colored this image you can watch the video here. This was the image I colored in the video. To add the daisies I simply covered the fairy with a sticky note and stamped the daisy stamp right on top after the image was colored, then I stamped just the ends if the stems again to make the flowers look bigger and as if they were behind the fairy. I colored them with my promarkers.

Thanks for listening to me rant today. I just wanted to make sure that if you have a cricut and d not already have SCAL that you don’t run out and get SCAL3 because it will not work with a cricut. (If you have another brand of diecutter I still wholeheartedly recommend it tho!)I am so fortunate that I got mine when I did! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!